Congkak — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

I was in this area of KL and decided to try Congkak which is in the Bib Gourmand list. It is fairly easy to find, it is just off the main street. The name of the restaurant and the cuisine it serves is a bit confusing. The word Congkak is an old traditional Malaysian game whereas the main food it serves is Nusantara cuisine which is of Indonesian origin.

Initially, I wanted to try the Rendang Tok platter, the waiter however advised this is a shared dish and that the portion size meant he recommended Nasi Dendeng Daging which is similar to the platter, I took his recommendation. Alongside that I ordered Kangkung Belacan which is a vegetable side dish, Pulum Hitam for dessert and a drink called ‘Michael Jackson’. The waiter then read the order back to me as stated above and I agreed with it.

When the food arrived, given I had never been to this place before, unbeknown to me it was in fact the platter that arrived. I started eating without realising what was put in front of me was not Nasi Dendeng Daging but it was the platter I was originally interested in ordering. Then the Nasi Dendeng Daging turned up as well, at that point I turned it away. Someone who did not introduce himself from the restaurant came to my table to ask why I was turning away the dish. I explained I was recommended the Nasi Dendeng Daging but the platter that I did not order turned up and I did not realise the difference. I said I had no idea why the waiter ordered everything. I managed to just about finish the platter and the Kangkung Belacan. After waiting for a period of time, I asked when the Pulum Hitam would arrive as I had already waited a while for this only to be told the order wasn’t taken for it!!! There was no formal apology from the restaurant, it didn’t seem to make someone think, if it is an order for one isn’t that a vast amount of food and perhaps to double check on the order.

Aside from the calamitous way how the restaurant is run, the food itself is actually very good, I would recommend going there for the food.

When the bill arrived they charged for the platter and not the Nasi Dendeng Daging, quite frankly I didn’t really want to leave a tip given the situation.

Overall, very tasty food but the overall service...

Tourist trap. Mediocre food and unpleasant experience ruined by a staff (Sandy).

We came as a group of 4 and should have walked away as soon as I saw all the other diners here were tourists. Sandy took our order and was very friendly in a fake way. I told her we will order the nasi ambeng for 2-3 pax, and a few other dishes too. Upon hearing that, she was like “that set is only for 2, are you sure?”. I proceeded with ordering that set, and added beef rendang, beef satay, a whole fish ikan wayang, 2 extra rice and while ordering, she repeated the set menu was only for 2 (despite menu saying for 3 and we added a lot of other dishes), trying to guilt me to order even more. Any decent wait staff would have told me there’s a lot of food and we could add more dishes if not enough. But she made it like it won’t be enough and persuaded me to add another paku masak lemak, which was completely unnecessary. After ordering so much food, she asked “that’s all?”, which heavily implied that it wasn’t enough.

Guess what? 3 grown men and 1 woman we had so much food left. I made a point to her that there was so much food waste and she was still pestering us to have dessert and made a sigh when I literally pointed at the food waste to her saying that we were too stuffed and couldn’t even finish all the food we ordered.

After she reluctantly passed us the bill and my husband paid with his card, she insisted that the payment didn’t go through and the card machine showed there was an error (printing error). The bank app clearly showed that the payment has gone through but she insisted us to wait for 20 mins while she called her bank.

Food wise, I’d rate it at most 3 only because they have unique dishes like nasi ambeng which you don’t really see much in restaurants. The sate was good but the rendang was way too salty, the chicken gulai was too sweet, ikan wayang was dry and...

Kudos to the chef for staying truth to Malay cooking. Food taste great and authentic.

But… we Made a booking, was greeted by a ‘friendly’ women. She left us with menu for 30 mins and was busy preparing for a big group dining inside. We were sort off fine by that because we were talking. But would appreciate some greetings, and drink order and explaination that some part of the menu not available for the night.

This waitress/hostess ruined the restaurant i feel. She mumble some words in a friendly tone and smile, but she actually have no service hospitality in her.. ‘don’t be angry, happy new year’ is her words. We are not angry, we just bunch of tourist that need some explanation about the menu and need to know which is available.

The other waiter came suddenly with our bill when we never asked for it, we refuse to pay because we are not ready to go.. they could have by that time took our plates away because we are done eating and maybe if you are smart ask if we want dessert. Also two times the waiter ask if we ordered a dish that we never ordered. Is this a scam for us to maybe say yes, and they just send one?

When we are finally ready to pay she was rushing us to complete the transaction. Snatch the card away before we are able to check the bill - stupid rude behavior!! She did not hear us when we say please insert do not tap the card. Very very rude.

Look i get it, don’t expect much in Malaysia in terms of service.. but when u pay a slightly premium for the food you would expect a bit more service.

As they are championing malay food, i worry that this kind of behavior / lack of service will be mistaken as malaysian...